Illinois moms won a major
victory for the benefit of their children with the passage of family friendly
jury duty legislation in the Summer of 1999. Illinois Public Act 91-0264
amended the Illinois jury duty laws to allow homemakers with children under 12
the option to defer jury duty if serving caused a legitimate family
hardship.

This family friendly jury
duty initiative was spearheaded by “Mothers of Color at Home” editor Donna
Treadwell and her husband Jimmie.

It all started in 1997,
Donna Treadwell was called for jury duty in Springfield, Illinois. At the
time, Donna was caring full-time for her four young children, ages 2 to 8,
and did not live near extended family. Her husband, Jimmie, had a demanding
job working for the Illinois state legislature which made it difficult for
him to assist with kids at any time during the work week.

Donna called the number on
the summons postcard. She explained that her job was caring for her
children and that she had worked to find care for her children but had not
been successful.The woman responded that it wasn't a valid exemption
qualification and Donna had no choice but to report for duty.

Donna describes in detail
how her upsetting experience with jury duty encouraged her to initiate
legislation that would prevent mothers from being separated from their young
children for jury service:

“On my first day of jury
duty I witnessed what happened when a mother asked to be excused early
because she needed to pick up her children”, explained Donna. “The court
employee spoke to her like she was an irresponsible child. I was horrified and
remember thinking ‘What’s going to happen if I need to be excused early or
have any emergency with my children?’”

Two days later Donna found
out. Her childcare arrangement fell though and she had no one to watch her
kids when she was scheduled to appear. She would have needed someone who
could have babysat her two and three-year-old, pick up her older boys from school,
and take care of all four kids until court adjourned for the day.

“I simply told them I
couldn’t come because I didn’t have anyone to care for my children,” Donna
stated. Like the other mother, she was lectured on her obligation
to serve and was told lack of childcare was not a consideration.

Donna recalls the
frustration she felt. “Here I was trying to do what I’m required to do --
take care of my family and essentially they were telling me my family
wasn’t that important.”